Not quite over the angst yet. Big thanks to Lizziginne, hopelesslyhalfhearted, tigpop and pinkswallowsun for reviewing and sticking with this. More puzzles to come

Harry wrung his fingers as he watched her continue to cry and scrubbed her hands at her eyes in that quirky way of hers. He longed to be with her, stroke her hair, hold her and tell her that it would be ok, but even though he could get out of his room, there was no way he could get into hers.

"Please don't cry Nikki," he wrote and then added ditto marks down the page.

"It does matter. You are going to get well Nikki,

You haven't got Ebola or Lassa, Hanta virus or Dengue or anything like that.

You're just under the weather, you've got a bug, norovirus or…"

He couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence. He had no reason to believe she would lie to him about what happened between them that night, and so if his suspicions were true; and there was no reason to believe they weren't, it would in fact be none of his business. He noticed her stop crying and start writing again.

"It's definitely not Dengue, the attending staff don't have to wear a respirator for that one."

"How do you know stuff like that?" Harry wrote back and tried a goofy smile.

She replied with a half smile herself.

They continued to sit at their windows together, comfortable with each other and the glass induced silence for a while, as Nikki calmed herself down.

"Do you want another round?" he wrote after a few minutes, when she looked more composed.

He pointed to the page of hangman at the front of the notepad, trying the only way he could to cheer her up. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and gave a small nod.

_ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _

Nikki turned back pages in her pad to find where she had written out the alphabet, and went through the vowels. It was strangely calming playing hangman with Harry, especially after she realised that for once he was playing a game and not doing everything in his power to win.

_ _ E A S E/ S _ I_ E

She looked at the puzzle, and up at Harry's wildly grinning face and purposely pouted. She watched Harry laugh and for a moment trusted in his implicit instinct that they were going to be alright.

She guessed the remaining letters and did as he requested as he wrote them in the spaces for her.

P L E A S E / S M I L E

"Your turn!"

She started to scribble, a new wave of earnestness about her features.

_ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?

Harry was surprised at the amount of letters and hurriedly went through the vowels. It was obviously a question. Why didn't she just ask him? And while he was pondering the inponderable what had she meant by hopeful?

It suddenly struck him like a thunderbolt.

Did she really want something more than friendship between them? He'd been so overwhelmed by her crying and his powerlessness, he'd only just started thinking through what she had actually said.

Hopeful?

He pulled his attention back to the puzzle.

_ _ _ / I S / _ I S S I_ _/ A / _O _ E _ / S O / _ A _ _ E _ O U S?